Carpet cleaning machine

ABSTRACT

Improvements in a carpet cleaning machine of the type employing hot water with a cleaning additive, ordinarily liquid, and progressively sprayed onto the carpet and then evacuated and discharged with entrained dirt, the improvements including arrangement of a dual purpose pump to provide the necessary suction into a filter as well as to apply sufficient pressure on the retrieved dirty water to drive the same toward a drain, and the cleaning head used to traverse the carpet is balanced and weighted and has multidirectional spray nozzles for the hot water spaced sufficiently from the actual vacuum duct to assure reasonable time for the water and chemicals in the water to achieve their cleaning action before being drawn back into the cleaning head as the latter is moved at normal speed over the carpet.

[ Aug. 13, 1974 1 CARPET CLEANING MACHINE A [76] Inventor: Jerome D.Cater, 14135 Ezra Ln.,

Poway, Calif. 92064 [22] Filed: Sept. 13, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 179,712

[52] US. Cl. 15/321, 15/353 [51] Int. Cl A471 7/00 [58] Field of Search15/320, 321, 322, 353

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,391,754 9/1921 Bair 15/321X 2,270,579 l/l942 Chamberlin et al. 15/322 X 3,439,374 4/l969 Wisoom15/321 3,496,592 2/1970 Jones l5/32l 3,605,169 9/1971 Howerin et al.15/321 3,663,984 5/1972 Anthony et al. 15/321 FOREIGN PATENTS ORAPPLICATIONS 892,658 3/1962 Great Britain 15/322 Primary Examiner-HarveyC. Homsby Assistant Examiner-C. K. Moore Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Roy L.Knox [5 7] ABSTRACT lmprovements in a carpet cleaning machine of thetype employing hot water with a cleaning additive, ordinarily liquid,and progressively sprayed onto the carpet and then evacuated anddischarged with entrained dirt, the improvements including arrangementof a dual purpose pump to provide the necessary suction into a filter aswell as to apply sufficient pressure on the retrieved dirty water todrive the same toward a drain, and the cleaning head used to traversethe carpet is balanced and. weighted and has multidirectional spraynozzles for the hot water spaced sufficiently from the actual vacuumduct to assure reasonable time for the water and chemicals in the waterto achieve their cleaning action before being drawn back into thecleaning head as the latter is moved at normal speed over the carpet.

1 Claim, 7 Drawing Figures PAIENIEO Au 3|974 susnmrz illllllllllllllllllINVENTOR. JEROME 0. CATER PATENTEDMJBI 3,828,390

sum 2 or 2 v INVENTOR. JEROME D. CATER CARPET CLEANING MACHINEBACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION It is not new to use jets of water, withsoap or the like added, in the cleaning of carpets and the use of vacuumpumps for partial drying of the carpet is not new. Various types ofcarpet-contacting heads have been developed, some including rotarybrushes and foam generators, the foam of course being drawn from thecarpet by vacuum pumps and hopefully carrying a large percentage of thedirt loosened by the water and any chemicals added. This shampooing ofrugs and carpets is routinely accomplished by professional carpetcleaners without removing the carpet but the wetting of the carpet isordinarily a considerable inconvience. There exists a need, therefore,for a carpet cleaner which will clean a carpet with a minimum of wettingand with a minimum number of passes of the cleaning head over thecarpet, and the cost of the equipment is also an important considerationas well as the bulk and weight of the equipment.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION As claimed, the instant invention meets theabove I mentioned need by providing improvement including a simplifieddual purpose pump which evacuates the dirty water and/or foam from thecarpet and drives the same through a filter and flexible hose to adrain, the filter being unique in its simplicity and removability andits capability of insuring against flow stoppage and the cleaning headhaving cooperative features for more efficlent contact with the carpetand improved multidirectionalized jetting and controlled timing of thewetting pickup cycle, all these improvements being oriented also towardmaking the cleaner more economically and easily operated.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a side elevation view,partially cut away, of the complete apparatus;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken on line 22 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken on line 3-3 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken on line 44 of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a rear elevation view of the cleaning head unit;

FIG. 6 is a enlarged underside view of the cleaning head; and

FIG. 7 is an enlarged sectional view taken on line 77 of FIG. 6.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to theembodiment represented in the drawing, the disclosed improvements are inboth of the main sub-assemblies, namely, the ambulant cabinet generallyindicated at 10 and the ambulant cleaning head 12.

The cabinet 10 is of upright type with horizontal shelves 14 and 16supporting a pump 18 and a filter 20. A flexible hose 22 is connectedthrough a metering valve 24 to a pipe 26 and this hose is connected, inuse, to a source of presurized hot water.

A chemical cleaning agent, usually a detergent, emulsifier, de-greaseror water softener, is inducted into the water from a tank 28 through agooseneck pipe 30 leading into a T-connection 32. A flow control valve31 or filter terminal 33 may be incorporated with the pipe 30 but thesizing of this pipe and the prior adjustment of the valve 24 may beadequate for proper regulation of the flow of water and cleaning agentinto the pipe 34 and flexible hose 36. Detergent tank 28 is supported onthe shelf 16 and shares the space below the cabinet cover 38 with thefilter sub-assembly 20, which will now be described.

Filter sub-assembly 20 includes an easily removable basin 40 closed atthe top by a lid 42 with a peripheral seal 44 and a base mountedstandpipe 46 which is continued below the base of the basin 40 asindicated at 48, the shelf 16 being apertured as at 50 to accept theportion 48. Coaxially and exteriorly of the standpipe is a filterelement 52 which may take the form of a metal screen and this filterelement extends close to but is carefully spaced from the lid 42 toprevent complete closure of the outlet in the event that the filterelement becomes clogged with lint or other material from the carpet. Thefilter inlet pipe 54 may be fixed to the basin 40 and dimensioned toextend throught the side of the cabinet 10 for connection to theflexible vacuum hose 56 or the pipe 54 may be secured to the cabinet andthe side of the basin 40 is then apertured and fitted with a tightfitting grommet to achieve an air tight seal.

Negative pressure in the filter is achieved by the pump 18 which willordinarily be an electrically powered rotary pump with a dual functionof producing negative pressure or so-called vacuum in the pipe 46-48, towhich it is removably connected by the coupling 60, and positive ordischarged pressure in the outlet pipe 62. This latter pipe 62 extendsto the exterior of the cabinet for connection to the flexible dischargehose 64 leading to a drain which will preferably have a directconnection with a sewer line or the equivalent.

Coming to the cleaning head 12, the frame comprises a pair of parallelspaced elongated bars 66 held rigidly by saddles 68 and 70. The bars 66continue upwardly and outwardly for handholds 72, and at the lowerextremities are bolted or otherwise affixed as at 74 to the hood 76.This hood 76 has a forwardly and downwardly inclined top wall 78, twoside walls 80, an open bottom and a rear wall 82. In addition, the hoodhas a generally V-shaped wall 84 with vertical side walls 86 secured tothe top wall 78 and defining therewith a funnel 88 converging toward andcommunicating with stub pipe 90 to which the lower end of the vacuumhose 56 is connected. The forward extremities of the walls 78 and 84 arevertical and spaced apart to define what is referred to herein as avacuum duct 92 extending across the front of the cleaning head. On therear wall 82 of the hood suitable casters 94 are mounted and inside therear wall is mounted a distributor pipe 96 with connection means 98 forthe lower end of a pipe 100 mounted between the bars 66. A flow controlvalve 102 is installed in this pipe 100 and made remotely operable by ahand lever 104 on one of the bars adjacent to a handgrip 72. Forimproved dispersion of the chemically treated water the distributor pipe96 carries a plurality of spaced jet nozzles 106, alternate nozzlesbeing at very slightly different angles relative to a horizontal planeso that the spray from some of the nozzles is slightly forwardly andfrom other nozzles is slightly rearwardly as indicated at 108 in FIG. 7to provide more efficient multi-directional jet action. The jet nozzlesare spaced from the vacuum duct 92 a distance on the order of 6 inches,this feature insuring that the hot water and chemicals added theretofrom the tank 28 will be in contact with the pile of the carpet for areasonable time before being drawn back into the vacuum duct as thecleaning head 12 is moved over the carpet at a reasonable speed, whilestill avoiding unduly prolonged wetting of the carpet. This feature isregarded as a structural improvement resulting in a somewhat fool-proofoperation of the machine, it being recalled that these machines areoften operated by unskilled persons. The said V-shaped wall 84 and walls86 weight the cleaning head so that the trailing edge and vacuum duct 92tend to be depressed so that the vacuum duct will be retained in use,close to the pile of the carpet with an increase in efficiency in thedrying operation.

and a removable filter on said exhaust port;

said removable filter comprising a reticulated upstanding screensurrounding said exhaust port and having an open top;

said vacuum tank having a self-sealing cover spaced slightly above saidopen top and thus defining an emergency passage to said exhaust port ofthe vacuum tank in the event of the clogging of the reticulated screen;

a dual purpose vacuum pump connected to said exhaust port anddischarging into a drain hose; and

a hand-pulled ambulant cleaning head connected by a flexible hose tosaid intake port of said vacuum tank, said cleaning head having a vacuumduct adjacent to the trailing edge thereof, as disposed when beingpulled across the carpet during use, and being weighted to hold saidtrailing edge and duct in close contact with the pile of the carpetbeing cleaned, whereby the suction of said single pump is conserved andmore fully utilized for partial drying of the carpet;

said cleaning head also having jet nozzles adjacent the leading edgethereof, as the cleaning head is being pulled across the carpet, andspaced from said vacuum duct a distance on the order of at least 6inches so that the sprayed water and any chemicals therein will be incontact with the pile of the carpet for an assured time even when thecleaning head is moved rapidly over the carpet.

1. Improvements in a carpet cleaning machine of the type using waterbased cleaning fluid conveyed through a flexible hose to an ambulantcleaning head having nozzles whereby the fluid is directed onto thecarpet and then evacuated, to a drain, for partial drying of the carpet,said improvements comprising: a vacuum tank having an inlet port, anexhaust port and a removable filter on said exhaust port; said removablefilter comprising a reticulated upstanding screen surrounding saidexhaust port and having an open top; said vacuum tank having aself-sealing cover spaced slightly above said open top and thus definingan emergency passage to said exhaust port of the vacuum tank in theevent of the clogging of the reticulated screen; a dual purpose vacuumpump connected to said exhaust port and discharging into a drain hose;and a hand-pulled ambulant cleaning head connected by a flexible hose tosaid intake port of said vacuum tank, said cleaning head having a vacuumduct adjacent to the trailing edge thereof, as disposed when beingpulled across the carpet during use, and being weighted to hold saidtrailing edge and duct in close contact with the pile of the carpetbeing cleaned, whereby the suction of said single pump is conserved andmore fully utilized for partial drying of the carpet; said cleaning headalso having jet nozzles adjacent the leading edge thereof, as thecleaning head is being pulled across the carpet, and spaced from saidvacuum duct a distance on the order of at least 6 inches so that thesprayed water and any chemicals therein will be in contact with the pileof the carpet for an assured time even when the cleaning head is movedrapidly over the carpet.